Nigeria is blessed with abundant talents in football. The country has been ranked as one of the highest exporters of footballers in Africa and the world. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that the senior men’s national team, the Super Eagles, has an array of stars that makes other African countries jealous. The team is blessed with good strikers, midfielders and defenders.
The engine room of any football team is the midfield. There, defence and attack is given shape. Creativity in midfield is the heart of any team, a prerequisite to goal scoring. Talking about the Super Eagles, the creative spark in the team is gradually fading like worn-out embers.
Despite the audition of many players for the team’s creative role, none has fully provided that creative skill Nigerians and the team desire. Since Austin Okocha retired from the national team, nobody has replicated Okocha’s artistry in the Super Eagles midfield. Players like Nosa Igiebor; Mikel Obi, Rabiu Ibrahim and recently, Alex Iwobi have been given the creative role of the team. They did all they could but more is needed. With Coach Gernot Rohr exhausting his options in Europe, it is time for him to come home and see that what he is expecting to see in Europe can be seen here at home.
There is a Nigerian, playing in the NPFL, who can give coach Gernot Rohr what has eluded the team. His name is Chukwuka Onuwa.
Onuwa plays for Enyimba FC of Aba. He was a fans’ favourite at his former club, MFM FC of Lagos and still is. Since he joined Enyimba, he has, again, endeared himself to the fans. Onuwa’s sheer intelligence on the ball is a joy to behold; his passing accuracy is impressive.
A locked down defence is no problem to him because he has an intellectual key to unlock any defence. How he does it, nobody knows.
Playing in a role just behind the strikers and in front of a solid two-man defensive midfield, Onuwa roams and performs wonders from the right or left side of midfield. With the vision of an eagle, he spots openings and sneaks in passes to his strikers.
A football analyst said of Onuwa: “He rotates in midfield like the earth’s seamless orbit round the sun. Where there are no chances, he creates them.” Surely, he is the best creative midfielder in the league.
He needs a sweeper like Wilfred Ndidi and a tireless marker like Oghenekaro Etebo, then allow him to create the chances – the kind of player strikers love.
Coach Gernot Rohr should see this NPFL wonder and feast his eyes on good and highly technical football from the lad.
The Eagles need Chukwuka Onuwa. Judging from what we saw at the last African Cup of Nations, Gernot Rohr should be worried.
Hardly does a player receive sincere ovation from fans in a game where he did not score – Onuwa does.
His lovely chip over was a bedrock to Sikiru Olatunbosun’s CNN Goal of The Week. That classic turn and the world class chip over that followed it surely got the world talking.
With fast wingers in the team like Ahmed Musa, Samuel Chukwueze, Alex Iwobi, Samuel Kalu, Moses Simon and Henry Onyekuru, the Eagles attack would be one of the most dreaded strike force on the continent; with a creative midfielder who knows the job. http://www.bellsnews.com/sports/breaking-success-makanjuola-strikes-deal-with-a-top-spanish-club/
Onuwa’s deft touches and his lovely chips over the defence line of opponents is a joy to behold. Nobody watches him and goes home unhappy.
He is called the Nigerian Luka Modric because of his similarity in playing style with Modric. incidentally, the Real Madrid star is his role model.
If Zinedine Zidane of Real Madrid and the Croatian National Team Coach, Zlatco Dalic, are happy that they have Luka Modric in their team, definitely, coach Gernot Rohr should be happy that a Nigerian version of Luka Modric is available for selection to play for the Super Eagles.